By PAUL SHUKOVSKY, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, April 20, 2008

Four Northwest filmmakers -- imprisoned by African officials who they assert wanted to squelch their documentary about devastation brought by the oil industry -- returned home Sunday afternoon exhausted but with a passionate desire to tell their story.

It is a story of the impoverished people of the vast Niger River delta who have watched as oil companies extract black gold while leaving their water poisoned and fish tainted, documentary director Sandy Cioffi said Sunday as she stood alongside three other members of the documentary crew.

Cioffi expressed her gratitude to Sen. Maria Cantwell who, with congressional colleagues and U.S. Embassy and counselor officials, persuaded Nigerian authorities to release the four Americans and an African collaborator within three days of their April 12 arrest.

Teary-eyed family and friends joined with journalists at a Seattle-Tacoma International Airport room as Cioffi spoke of how they never stopped believing while in custody that those family members and friends would work to free them.

"In the darkest moments when it is easy to give up hope ... it's what got us through," Cioffi said.

Although the four said that there was inadequate food during their confinement and that they were psychologically intimidated by their captors, none complained of physical mistreatment.

With unrestrained passion, Cioffi spoke of a sort of Third World version of a corrupt oil oligarchy, which has ignored the devastating effects of oil drilling on the indigenous people of the Niger delta.

The documentary, to be called "Sweet Crude," is intended to chronicle the "blatant exploitation" taking place there, she said. That is why officials took them into custody, Cioffi said. She dubbed their capture "dangerous suppression of journalism. It was very clear we had been targeted for content issues."

The Nigerian government had earlier said that they had gone into the Niger delta without proper permission and clearances.

After the news conference, Cantwell said her office is seeking a meeting with the assistant secretary of state for human rights to discuss the situation in the Niger delta.

"We think something needs to be done to elevate the issues of human rights, corruption and environmental devastation," Cantwell said.